Esperance to Melbourne - January 2010

I haven't written up a road trip for awhile so after sifting through my old photo's I thought I'd write this one up. I love a road trip, I think its legacy of being bought up in a truck driving family, unlike a lot of people I can jump out of the car after a 1000 kilometre trip feeling refreshed and ready to go again, I love listening to ABC local radio as the country side slides by and day turns into night. One thing that intrigues me driving in Australia though is the amount of agro on the roads, now I'm a big enough boy that I can look after myself so I'm not really intimidated by it, but it seems that a fairly large percentage of drivers in Australia take ugly pills before they get behind the wheel. It appears to me that if you cocoon these people into a tonne or two of metal powered by an internal combustion engine, they morph into a cross between Mike Tyson and Michael Schumacher, I used to put it down to our crowded roads but after seeing the crappy crowded roads in Peru it can't be the traffic, even with eight cars vying for three lanes in Lima there was no road rage, in fact in the three weeks I was in Peru I covered 100's of kilometres on some pretty dicey and sometimes crowded roads, was involved in one minor accident and about 100 near misses but didn't see any agro at all. Maybe its just our macho culture in Australia, I dunno. The thing is the fairer sex are just as bad as the blokes, maybe its our overwhelming sense of entitlement and the fact that we want everything, now!

Warming up on our drive across the Nullarbor.

Anyway back to the road trip, its going to be a pretty quick post because the blog wasn't even a twinkle in my eye when we did this trip so I haven't got a lot of photo's to sift through or pages of witty notes. This was the homeward leg of our Indian Pacific  trip over to Perth, I've already done posts about our visit to Porongurup National Park, my epic day in the the Stirling Range National Park and my climb of Frenchman Peak in Cape Le Grand National Park. The first day of this post saw us drive from Esperance to Eucla a drive of around  912 kilometres, due to having to take a vehicle over on the train we were in Sam's little Ford Fiesta, a little city car not normally associated with cross country journeys, so even though I'd done this journey many times before I was interested in how the little car would perform.

Getting even warmer, this was as hot as it got.

The old jetty at Eucla.

We left Esperance very early in the morning and were pointing east at Norseman by mid morning, once on the Eyre Highway leaving Norseman the next town of any size is on the other side of the Nullarbor Plain around 1200 kilometres away at Ceduna. The day was stinking hot, I remember watching the ambient temperature gauge on the dash creep up, eventually topping out at 49, that's Celsius not Fahrenheit. The little car cruised along all day at 110 without a problem, in fact we had such a good drive that we pulled up to Eucla in the mid afternoon. Getting to Eucla early allowed us to return to the historical telegraph station that we have visited over the years, its slowly being claimed by the creeping dunes. Leaving the car there we struck out across the dunes towards the coast, managing to avoid being bitten by a Death Adder we crested the final dune and a a beautiful beach was spread out before us complete with a decaying jetty. After a quick skinny dip on the deserted beach, and drip drying in the baking hot sun for a couple of minutes we headed back up to the tiny township for dinner and to watch the sun set through the Mallee trees.

Looks like a good spot for a swim.

Great White Shark bait.

Not a lot of punters on this beach.

Sam, in her hiking havaianas, keeping an eye out for Death Adders.

There are some impressive dunes around Eucla.

The sun setting at the end of a stinking hot day, Eucla.

Waking next day we were heading to Streaky Bay on the Eyre Peninsula a drive of around 603 kilometres. Once again the day was stinking hot, well into the high 40's. The drive today was enlivened, at least initially, by a series of lookouts over the Great Australian Bight. Every time I travel this road in daylight hours I stop at these lookouts, with the billiard table flat Nullarbor Plain coming to an abrupt end at 100 metre high cliffs which plunge into the deep blue Southern Ocean, at the right time of the year its also prime whale watching real estate. Eventually we ran out of lookouts so we made tracks for Ceduna, passing through the Yalata Aboriginal Community on the way, unfortunately the roadhouse where they used sell indigenous art at has closed down, mostly due to ignorance a lot of people crossing the Nullarbor were scared to stop there. By early afternoon we were pulling up at the Streaky Bay Hotel, our home for the night, after throwing our stuff in the room we headed to the pier for refreshing swim with the local kids.

Looking down over the Southern Ocean.

At the first lookout after the Western Australia/South Australia border.

Looks like I'm channelling Burt Reynolds judging by how far my shirts unbuttoned!

The Southern Ocean looked quite inviting from the top of the cliffs.

The Great Australian Bight.

Waking today we were heading for Adelaide 691 kilometres away, once again it was baking hot. Today was the day I'd been looking forward to all trip however, long before leaving Melbourne I'd organised for us to go diving with the Dolphins and Sea Lions at Baird Bay, this was a bucket list thing for me that I'd planned the whole trip around. So leaving Streaky Bay we bounced our way along the dirt road to Baird Bay parking outside Baird Bay Ocean Eco Experience office on the beach. After getting kitted out we waded out to the boat and motored down the bay, now my only regret is that I didn't have a water proof camera at the time, this was one of the best days of my life. First up we went diving with some Bottle Nose Dolpins, I quickly worked out that if I floated in the water they would just flash by, a flash of silver in the blue, but if I 'played' with them they would hang around and 'play' with me. Now by playing I mean duck diving, twisting, somersaulting under the water, as long as I could keep it up the Dolphins stayed interested, one of the few times in my life that all the swimming training I did as a young kid paid off. Eventually we all returned to the boat (there was only six of us on the tour) and we headed off to go swimming with the Sea Lions, now anyone who's read my blog we'll know that I've got a soft spot for seals and swimming with these Sea Lions was as good as it gets, like the Dolphins the Sea Lions would hang around if I played with them. The added enjoyment with the Sea Lions though was the fact that the pups would actually mimic me, so when I dived they'd dive, when I spun they'd spin, when I somersaulted... we'll you get the idea. In between our synchronised swimming session the pups would look at me with those big eyes wandering what the big fat white seal with the funny things on his face would do next.

I'm the one without a wet suit, the Dolphin is near the buoy.

Sea Lions basking on the sand at Baird Bay.

I didn't have a waterproof camera on this trip so all the photos are above the water line.

Some more Bottle Nose Dolphins at Baird Bay.

We returned to the car in the early afternoon and headed off towards Adelaide. Our first stop on our journey to Adelaide was at some weird rock formations called Murphy's Haystacks, Sam sitting in the shade of one of the grotesquely shaped rocks while I walked around the paddock getting a couple of photos.  From Murphy's Haystacks we cut across to Wudinna on the Eyre Highway, the temperature once again climbing into the high forties, by the time we pulled into Adelaide late that night it was still in the high thirties, the most important priority was to find a room with some air conditioning and have a shower. After spending the night at a cheap and cheerful motel at Glen Osmond we made the short 916 kilometres, nine hour drive home to Melbourne, arriving home after another great trip.

Baird Bay beach.

It was another bloody hot day.

Murphy's Haystacks.

Murphy's Haystacks are in a farmers paddock.

The Dirt.
We stayed at numerous small motels, most of which I can't remember the names of. Sam's little car performed faultlessly in the extreme weather, day after day, and I wouldn't hesitate to do another trip like that in it.
Our diving trip at Baird Bay was with Baird Bay Ocean Eco Experience and was one of the best things I've ever done, I don't think I'd pass through that area without revisiting.

Sam's found some shade while I wander around the paddock checking out the rocks.

Back on the Eyre Highway, like I said it was stinking hot again.